CdA Personal Teacher Session 10/5/97

[Rick P. Giles]

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October 5, 1997
*     Elyon  (Jonathan TR):  Greetings to you today, friends.  I am
Elyon.  I will open the discussion.
      Let me first express to you my observations of the processes we
have been undertaking over these several years.  First and early in
the mission you may liken us to waiters and the melchizedeks as chefs. 
We would bring you the food to nourish you, and early in the process
we even provided rubber coated spoons.  You recall our disapproval of
curiosity questions, for these questions would necessitate metal
spoons for you to be able to accept with safety the answers.  
      Over time we have set the table and arranged the dishes and the
food upon the dishes.  Now we ask you to bring the potluck.  You have
grown to the point where you can feed yourselves.  We ask you to let
us sit at the table with you.  There will always be a main course
provided from the melchizedek recipe book.  
      I hope this helps to illustrate our lessons.  I now turn the mee-
ting over to the bus boys.
      Tom:  If I could ask you, Elyon, for just one more glass of
water, could you give us another fence post, triangle, a little visual
that can enhance our creativity as we go about our day.
*     Elyon:  I do not intend to put ice in your water, but let me
offer this during the course of our conversation so that I may select
an appropriate visual when the context is ready for such a delivery. 
*     Darid:  I am Darid.  I will speak.  Perhaps your tape recorder
functions today.  [Last time we heard from him it didn't.] 
      Discernment is a valuable tool for increasing your grasp of
things real and erroneous.  The judicious mind endowment is the arena
in which discernment functions.  It is of great value when sorting
through life's situations to be able to rank and order your values and
events.  What I would give to your today as a caution is to learn to
rein in this function when you are at odds with yourself.  By this I
mean that you will often debilitate enthusiasm through scornful
evaluation.  I do not intend to ask you to give up careful examination
of oneself, only that when you are down, to be careful, to wait for a
happier moment.
      I request feedback.  
      Evelyn:  I'm not clear exactly what you are cautioning us against
doing when we are down.  I understand how a scornful attitude can
definitely undermine enthusiasm.
*     Darid:  Before I respond I would ask others to comment.
      Mary:  I thought you meant the power of discernment when turned
toward yourself is useful, but it can denigrate to a level of scornful
observation when you are down.  When you are happier you might have a
more productive outcome.  
*     Darid:  You have expressed my intent, for discernment is good,
but when in a down emotional state it can easily become judgement in
the negative sense, even to the point of thrashing yourself.  It is
the inverse of ordering values according to high purposes.  It tends
to order your worth based on your most negative features and listing
them to the more minor negative features.  So, to examine yourself, do
so when you are in a better state of mind.  This does not mean to
avoid the tough issues, only that your mental atmosphere ought to be
clear.  
      Mary:  I discern that one of the things that contributes to being
up or down is physiology.  Do you have any advice on how to have more
control over the ups and downs?  With vast efforts of mind over matter
I can make myself not be so snippy, but I feel what causes me to feel
that way may be that I need more water or carbohydrates or to stay off
the caffeine.
*     Darid:  You have expressed an awareness of nourishment, physical
aids like appropriate sleep.  These do affect mood.  However, even
these are overridden by social environment, for one can go hungry and
still be joyful when in good company.  The greater factor for helping
break the funk is to cultivate the ability to step aside oneself, to
even make fun of the situation.  There is a compounding factor in both
a good and a bad mood such that, even though perhaps you have been
without sufficient sleep, the downward turn can deepen in spite of a
nap, for the mind itself begins to spin many ramifications and compar-
isons based on the mental state triggered by the physiological cause. 
Does this help?
      Mary:  Once the physiology leads you down, you have to pay atten-
tion to your mind which may habituate to that mode.  Taking a nap may
be easier than forcing your mind to turn around.  You may need to do
both, to take a nap and to use the appropriate tool on your mind.  
*     Darid:  Correct.  I will give you two visual aids: one is a ball,
the other a balloon.  When the wind blows both can move.  With a
balloon, when the wind ceases, it stops.  But a ball can continue
rolling for it is in different conditions than the balloon.  You may
correct the physiological factor, which is like your wind, and the
ball may continue to roll.  This would require the mental efforts to
change.  Other times it is much like a balloon; the physical correc-
tion brings an end to your complication.  
      Mary:  Sometimes you need a nap, sometimes you need to work a
little harder.  
*     Darid:  And this is an exercise in discernment.
      Mary:  Which is practiced by stepping outside yourself to look at
what is going on.  
*     Darid:  Indeed.  And mirth is often helpful.  
*     Evanson:  This is Evanson, and I am here today, too, and am
pleased to be with you.  I work on this very subject matter with
Jonathan, for he suffers often from such states of mind.  I offer the
balancing comment that we humans do grow complacent when not troubled. 
So difficulties do spur us toward solving problems.  I suggest that
you not develop the abilities of avoidance, but develop the immediate
responses upon the occurrence of your poor moods.  Then you will have
made good out of something you find to be bad.  
      Mary:  Finding myself in a bad mood today, I was thinking this is
an opportunity to exercise mind control and get through it.  There's
that crossing over from the idea to the action, following through on
your stroke.
*     Evanson:  We who are blessed with the current position of moron-
tia being  have wonderful aids who come to our service when we strug-
gle who are able to, in a sense, play the jester and allow us to break
the fix upon us, to take a fresh look.  Since we trust these beings we
seek them out at these times, for often a serious lesson, though full
of remedy, does not swallow well like a good poke lightheartedly.  On
your world lack of familial and community teaching has led to the de-
velopment of such behavior as belittlement.  Lighthearted corrective
advice is hard to receive when your culture often uses such techniques
to further injure.  You who are here becoming closer as brothers and
sisters can learn to develop ways to provide feedback without neces-
sitating a stern rebuke, but give it in a loving and lighthearted way. 
Is this understandable?
      Evelyn:  Very much to me.  Many times I have wished that, if I am
doing something amiss, another person would consider me friend enough
to point it out, sure, preferably in a lighthearted manner.  So often
we witness that it is turned into gossip and ridicule behind your
back, which is way more destructive.  Trust is undermined rather than
built.  But people basically refuse to say anything directly.  I'm
glad to hear it from you.  
      I also feel reluctant to point things out when not invited to. 
In this culture you don't offer such things because it's taken as a
rebuke.  It's limited to parents with small children or the occasional
bold grandparent. 
      Mary:  Maybe we shouldn't assume the other person knows but speak
out in study group or in our relations at home that we want that sort
of interaction together.
*     Jessona:  I now make my comments to you.  I am Jessona.  I would
offer for you, Philip, a picture.  View in your mind a bowling ball
and take note of the three holes.  These three holes can have many
names given to them like truth, beauty, and goodness; or Father, Son,
and Spirit.  You can place your fingers in these holes, the three fin-
gers of mind, body, and soul.  Through your will you can make this
ball roll.  Life is the rolling of this ball.  At times it ends in the
gutter; at other times you strike.  Much in life is of a threefold
nature.  Consider in any episode what the three factors will be that
will make rolling the ball efficient, for, as you know, it is diffi-
cult to roll a bowling ball with two or one finger.  Do you have
insights to share?
      Tom:  I will think about that.  Thank you. 
      Mary:  If you don't have one of your fingers well placed, that's
when you are likely to hit a gutter.  You need the balance of all
three to get a strike.  The trick to me is which triangle are you
working with at any given time?  What were the qualities I was grap-
pling with when I hit that gutter?  *           Jessona:  To continue the
analogy, the skill you develop in exercising yourself as you now speak
in discernment is that, while you look toward the pins and that is
your goal, you must likewise be aware of the process of movement.  The
harmonious function of the three fingers in the spin of the hand can
effect the outcome.  However, as I am sure you are aware, overmuch
attention upon your hand takes your focus from the pins.  As you have
stated, it is balance and harmony that fulfill the functions.  
      Mary:  Paying attention to the goal you may get more information
on the tools you are using to achieve that goal.  If you lose track of
the goal, no matter how much attention you pay to the tools, what good
are they?
*     Jessona:  Correct.  Evelyn has expressed that she feels often
oriented materially, not so reverentially.  This would be one of the
holes.  If she discerns this as the case and feels like she rolls
gutter balls, tipping the balance, providing a spin, can correct the
action and send the ball on the course you desire.  
      And I say to all of you, the Father and His host of ministers are
skilled at resetting the pins that you can try many times to attain
your goal.        Dan: [who had just walked in]  You need three fingers
to apply English.  Your approach to the line is important.  You have
to have your eyes on the pins and also be aware of the integrated
function of each aspect in order to be successful.  
*     Jessona:  Wonderful comments, my friend.  You have illustrated
two more factors in this analogy.  One is that the best strike is
between pins, and often one must see more than a single goal to
accomplish a task.  Two, the line, discerning when you are approaching
the extent of your human skills, your human abilities, and when you
will step beyond what you can handle.  It is important, once the ball
is released, faith and trust will carry it the rest of the way.  
      And greetings to you.  
      Tom:  Also the attitude you have, whether you are up or down,
determines the trajectory.  Like Darid spoke of earlier, your mental
state could detract from the trajectory of the ball.
*     Jessona:  Quite correct.  You can visualize a bowler where he
tosses the ball in the air, what a racket that makes.  Or complete
confused disorientation where you lose the ball on the backswing.  
      Dan:  Each bowler has a unique style; holding, releasing, the
spin.  No one is better than any other.  Practicing your own style is
what really makes you better. 
*     Jessona:  Let us expand the imagery to the entire bowling alley. 
As you have pointed out, every distinct and individual style can
attain the same goal.  This is the bowling alley of the Supreme. 
      Mary:  In the approach to the line, I envision the connection
between your stillness time and the time spent in preparation and
understanding.  (tape flipped)
*     Jessona:  Thank you.  I will toss one more idea in and that is
the principle of giving and receiving, for every time you roll the
ball, it does come back to you.  
      Dan:  On the lane there are little arrows and dots that you
attempt to get the ball over or use in placing your feet to make the
best of your style.  If you aim for those you will be more consistent. 
They are guides to use to develop your style. 
*     Jessona:  Would you not consider, as I am sure you will, that
these dots at your feet just slightly ahead and your pins at the end
of the alley all are your time references for the accomplishment of
your goal?  
      This is enjoyable discussing these pictures with you all; to
receive your input into ideas that can be incorporated into such
pictures enlarges the view for all of us.  As there are other TRs here
and more personal teachers, I would allow the time.
      Dan:  Since this is personal teacher day, I would ask Solonia if
there are areas that I should focus on.  Is there something I'm not
spending enough time with?
*     Solonia:  Greetings, my loving associate.  I am Solonia.  
      You have been in the phases of development and initiation of the
conjoined goals of yourself and the will of the Father.  I advise you
to give more emphasis to the dimension of integrated cooperation, to
the conjoining of the energies of others with you, for you have given
much personal energy to your work and will greatly be energized by the
input and help of your associates.  Though at times it can be dis-
heartening to be raring to forge ahead and be without the supportive
enlistment of others.  You have developed the ability to pursue
without discouragement; such independent abilities can interfere with
conjoined involvement.  So it is, as has been the discussion today, a
lesson in discernment for when either approach is the optimum move. 
Does this provide you with the information you seek?
      Dan:  Some now, more later when I read it.  Thanks. 
      Tom:  Jessona, I notice a change in lifestyle and vocation of
late.  Does this fall in line with my availability with the work that
you are doing?  If so, can you give me a bigger picture of what is
going on?
*     Jessona:  As you ascend in spiritual status, you will and have
discovered change points in your life where you put down the tools on
the workbench for the prior phase of your experience and begin the new
work ahead.  Although you are perhaps the least inclined to grant
yourself the award of mastery of many human things, you have done so.
      Life on Urantia would more clearly show marked chapters in human
development if it were a normal sphere.  You will increasingly spend
more time in the outworking of your enlightenment.  This does often
bring a change in career, though on this world most of you will
struggle with the temporal things to the very end such that you, your-
self, will have gradations, interweavings, of these dimensions of
yourself.  The maturity of the soul brings a shift in the focus of
personal gratification.  This gratification will redefine not only
your leisure activities but your career activities.  Recognize that
your recognition of this change in your life is a present moment ind-
icator of your growth at this time.  Though there be uncertainty as to
direction, the very transition proves to you that you are growing.  I
hope that this has been helpful.
      Tom:  Thanks.
*     Ellena (Mary):  There is a place for you to go to seek guidance. 
It is behind the eyes, within the heart, in the stillness.  There you
will find personalities that can be of assistance.  Michael of course
is there.  The Father is there.  Your personal teachers are available
at times like these study groups as well as other times.  Just a
reminder that there is a place you can always go at any time for guid-
ance.  Name it the stillness, place it behind the eyes, feel it in
your heart with trust and faith.  You will find that through diligent
application of your energies to your daily task in life that the pins
have been set in the bowling alley.  Your mundane, everyday tasks will
cause you to confront the issues of higher meanings and values. 
Search for these lessons in your finite tasks of going about your
business.  They are there.  If you seek them you will find them. 
Hopefully you will enjoy the game.  
      Jonathan:  Thank you for bringing that analogy back up.  Some-
times I may desire those pins at the back and have to be strong to
plow through the front ones to reach those. 
*     Ellena:  Yes, life has a way of setting up the game in the proper
order.  If you are shooting at the goal of the back pins, life will
teach you that you must go through the front pins to get to the back
pins.  
      Tom:  The higher your score, the more people will watch.  You can
be a model, a demonstration. 
      Jonathan:  Then when you are tired there is the whisper of the
Father's voice like the little air valve for drying your hands. 
will.